Americans have trust issues – with one another

You can take our word for it. Americans don't trust each other anymore.

We're not talking about the loss of faith in big institutions such as the government, the church or Wall Street, which fluctuates with events. For four decades, a gut-level ingredient of democracy – trust in the other fellow – has been quietly draining away.

These days, only one-third of Americans say most people can be trusted. Half felt that way in 1972, when the General Social Survey first asked the question.

Forty years later, a record of nearly two-thirds say “you can't be too careful” in dealing with people.

An AP-GfK poll conducted last month found that Americans are suspicious of one another in everyday encounters. Less than one-third expressed a lot of trust in clerks who swipe their credit cards, drivers on the road or people they meet when traveling.

“I'm leery of everybody,” said Bart Murawski, 27, of Albany, N.Y. “Caution is always a factor.”

No quick solution

There's no easy fix.

In fact, some studies suggest it's too late for most Americans alive today to become more trusting. That research says the basis for a person's lifetime trust levels is set by his or her mid-20s and unlikely to change, other than in some unifying crucible such as a world war.

The best hope for creating a more trusting nation may be figuring out how to inspire today's youth to trust the way previous generations did in simpler times.

There are still trusters around to set an example.

Pennsylvania farmer Dennis Hess is one. He runs an unattended farm stand on the honor system.

Customers select their produce, tally their bills and drop the money into a slot, making change from an unlocked cash box. Both regulars and tourists en route to nearby Lititz, Pa., stop for asparagus in spring, corn in summer and long-neck pumpkins in the fall.

“When people from New York or New Jersey come up,” said Hess, 60, “they are amazed that this kind of thing is done anymore.”

Hess has updated the old ways with technology. He added a video camera a few years back, to help catch people who drive off without paying or raid the cash box.

There's no single reason for Americans' loss of trust.

Retreat from civic life

The best-known analysis comes from “Bowling Alone” author Robert Putnam's two decades of studying the United States' declining “social capital,” including trust.

Putnam says Americans have abandoned their bowling leagues and Elks lodges to stay home and watch TV. Less socializing and fewer community meetings make people less trustful than the “long civic generation” that came of age during the Depression and World War II.

Trust has declined as the gap between the nation's rich and poor gapes ever wider, Uslaner says, and more and more Americans feel shut out. They've lost their sense of a shared fate. Tellingly, trust rises with wealth.

Can anything bring trust back? Uslaner and April K. Clark, a Purdue University political scientist and public opinion researcher, don't see much hope anytime soon.

Thomas Sander, executive director of the Saguaro Seminar launched by Putnam, believes the trust deficit is “eminently fixable” if Americans strive to rebuild community and civic life, perhaps by harnessing technology.

After all, the Internet can widen the circle of acquaintances who might help you find a job. Email makes it easier for clubs to plan face-to-face meetings.

“A lot of it depends on whether we can find ways to get people using technology to connect and be more civically involved,” Sander said. “The fate of Americans' trust is in our own hands.”